by Brandt Legg
“I’m so flustered to see you, Nate. I just got back from the beauty parlor.” Her hair was reddish brown, which probably wasn’t her real color because I recalled seeing several other shades over the years.
“It’s very pretty.” Linh smiled.
“Oh, you think so, kitten?” Rose beamed, playing with her long wispy strands.
“Is that a crystal ball?” Linh asked.
“Sure is,” Rose said, pointing us to the sofa under the window. The coffee table was fashioned from thick planks of redwood and pine and contained several dazzling rocks. I recognized a rather large amethyst cone. She’d given me a smaller version on my tenth birthday, knowing that I loved rocks. There were also geodes and crystals in yellow, clear, pink, and green. “Nate, it’s been four damn years since your mother excommunicated me from my own family. I’m tickled the universe finally brought you back to my door, but I hope everything’s okay.”
“We just came from seeing Dustin. He suggested we pay you a visit.”
“Is Dusty okay?” she asked, sitting behind the crystal ball dressed in flowing layers of multicolored scarves similar to the ones that adorned the room around her table. From our angle, it was difficult to see where she ended and the room began, which is probably the effect she wanted.
“As well as he can be in that place.”
“I know it’s awful. I can’t stand to see him there. I’m a little surprised because I didn’t think you’d visited him before.”
“I’ve been seeing past lives and hearing voices.”
“Of course you have, honey,” she said, looking at Kyle and Linh. “Does your mother know?”
“Does she know what? That I went to see Dustin? That I’m here now with my black sheep, forbidden aunt or that I’m some sort of psychic freak?”
“Oh, Nate honey, you’re not a freak. It only feels that way because most folks don’t remember how to be open to the universe.”
“My mom doesn’t know anything.”
“Don’t be so sure. Your mother is smarter than you think. That’s how she got my brother. He always went for the smartest girl. Your mother is pretty, but Montgomery didn’t care a thing about that. All he wanted was brains.”
“If she’s so smart, why did she lock her firstborn in an asylum?”
“She’s scared, Nate, like a lot of folks, just plain terrified. Your mother always has been.”
“What’s she afraid of?”
“Oh God, I don’t know. What isn’t she afraid of? She’s scared of anything that might disrupt her white-bread view of the world. She doesn’t want to know what’s on the other side of the veil because she just barely manages to keep things straight on this side.”
“That’s no reason to doubt your own son.”
“Fear’s a powerful thing; it can be blinding. Dusty didn’t help his cause with all the drugs, which sort of ruined his credibility with her. I’ll bet she’s mighty worried about you, though. Dusty was always tough, anyone could see that, even when he was little. But you were the sensitive one, always lost in your thoughts and worrying over folks.”
“Do you know who murdered my dad?”
“Goodness, you get right to it, don’t you? Did I mention you were always forthright as well?”
“I don’t know how to be polite about someone killing my dad. I want some real information.”
“I know you do. I miss him so much, but I don’t know who did it or exactly why. If I did, I don’t know what I’d be capable of, but let me tell you that I do know for a fact he was murdered.”
“How do you know that?”
“He told me.”
“Who?”
“Your daddy.”
“My dad told you he’d been murdered?”
“He came to me just hours after he died, long before your mother even called to tell me. He was right there,” she said, pointing to the doorway. We all looked, I almost expected to see him standing there. “He was out of breath like he’d been running and just as solid looking as you or me. But I cried, ‘no, no, Montgomery, no,’ because I knew right away he’d crossed over. You may not know this but your dad and me were close. We talked three or four times a week our whole adult lives. It was the gift that bound us. But we’ll talk about that later. He looked at me and said, ‘It’s not what they say. Don’t believe I died.’ For a minute I thought he was trying to tell me that his soul was still there, you know, that none of us really die. But he knew that I knew, and his face was so distressed. ‘Murder again,’ he said. I got real calm because I knew it was taking so much energy for him to appear to me like that, and I needed to understand everything he was trying to get across. I asked who and why, but he just shook his head, and then I realized he was gone. I hadn’t even seen him go.”
“How do you know you didn’t imagine it?’
“Please, Nate, this is what I do, this is who I am.” She waived an arm around at the candles, crystals, colored scarves, and trinkets hanging about. “Do you think I imagined it?”
“What’d my mother say when you told her?”
“She didn’t get the full version, just that I’d received a message from the other side telling me Montgomery was murdered, that the autopsy was faked or missing something. And, well, she always thought I was nutty and she was still in shock, so it didn’t go over too well.”
“You told her that Dustin and I have psychic abilities?”
“Yep. I guess I might as well have told her that you two were alien witches and her husband had been killed by the Lord of Darkness trying to save Princess Leia.”
Linh giggled.
“So, you’ve been visiting Dustin ever since he got to Mountain View?”
“No, I didn’t even find out he was there for four or five months. I kept hearing these voices that said, ‘help Dusty, help Dusty,’ over and over again. Then I found him, and I’ve been trying to help him as best I could, between the drugs they have him on and the restrictions of where he is.”
“How’d you find him?”
“There are ways. I found him on the astral. My mother had this gift too, but my father forbade her to talk to us about it or use it. She still did, of course, just kept it to herself. About the time your dad and I started coming into it she died. You never did know your grandmother, Nate, but you would have liked her, and she would have loved you to pieces. She had a way, I’ll tell you. Anyhow, she was able to help us enough to keep us from getting locked up or killing ourselves, which is what happens to so many who find the power.”
“What did my dad do with his?”
“Your dad rejected it, which isn’t easy because it keeps coming up. Still, he managed to keep it under control. Not me. I embraced it, but I’ve had a tough time with this human dimension. I’m the kind of nutty psychic who gives nutty psychics a bad name. Married four times, I like my wine a little too much. Messed up my life pretty good, I guess. It can be hell keeping it all straight with worlds always colliding. I’ve been trying to make amends by seeing Dusty through his dark time.”
“How’s he doing? I mean, really?”
“I gotta tell you, honey, it’s not all peaches and cream. I’ve been able to keep him somewhat sane by showing him ways to control his past life visions, and he’s also been able to do some very limited astral traveling. But he’s drowning in toxins, and we’re going to lose him if he doesn’t get out of there very soon.”
“That’s what I think. We’re going to figure out a way. Will you help?”
“You betcha. I’ll lead the charge, honey.”
“What about showing me some of those tricks about controlling past lives. I call those visions ‘Outviews.’ And astral traveling? My friend Amber mentioned something about that, but is it really possible?”
“Nate, I’ll give you as much time as you’re willing to devote. I’ll show you everything I know. And Kyle, don’t worry, I’m not as kooky as I look,” she said, smiling at him.
“No, I don’t think you are, I mean—”
“Didn’t you read the sign out front? I know what you’re thinking. I also know your energy is very powerful. And Linh, you need to study your dreams, for you it’s the way to your soul. I’d love to read some of your poetry.”
We all looked at each other.
“How is it I’ve never known you were a psychic?”
“Your mother didn’t want you boys to know, so your dad made me promise never to mention it.”
“What part of my life is true?”
“Honey, is any part of anyone’s life true or real?” She sang the word “real” as she said it.
“I’m obviously not the one to ask. Aunt Rose, can I borrow a phone?”
“Sure, my cell should be out on the hall table.”
“How about I do a reading for you, Linh?” Rose said as I was walking out.
I found her phone on the table next to a deck of tarot cards and a stack of her flyers. “Amber, it’s Nate.”
“You called! How are you? Where are you?”
“We’re at my aunt’s house in Merlin. You’d love her; she’s a psychic.”
“Your aunt’s a psychic? Why am I not surprised? She should be able to help you a lot. How’d you run into her?”
“That’s a long story. Actually my aunt’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about her when we get back.”
“And Dustin?”
“I have to get him out. He’s as sane as me.”
“I’ll resist the joke.” She laughed. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m still working on it. How’s it going with your mom and sister?”
“It’s been nice, really. We’re having a good time. I miss you though.”
Rose did a reading for Linh, while Kyle and I raided our stash of candy. Linh said later that Rose told her stuff no one else knew about her and that Rose even described some of Kyle’s past in Vietnam. She said Linh would come into her own spiritual power, beginning with dream messages. “Nate, she said you would be my teacher, that you would teach Kyle, too. She said you’re very powerful. Actually, she stressed extremely powerful.”
22
Rose insisted on buying us lunch. We ordered Chinese, delivered while she explained vortexes. “You’ve heard of Sedona?”
“In Arizona?” Linh asked.
“Good girl. It’s probably the best-known area for vortexes, even though they’re doing a good job of crowding out the energy with condos, golf courses, and tourist traps. But still, they’re there. Earth’s not just a rock moving through space with a bunch of water, trees, and people. It’s energy. And up until a few thousand years ago, we used to interact with that energy.”
“Then a vortex is a place where we interact with the earth?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s putting it simply but accurately. Vortexes are spots where the concentrated energy from the planet and the universe is really present.”
“What comes from the interaction?” Kyle asked.
“Healing, transformation, awareness, great and positive things. Even if you don’t believe in anything, a vortex feels intensely powerful because it’s like a direct connection to the power of your soul.”
“How do you find them?”
“They’re not secret. I’ll give you a list of all the known ones, but many, many more haven’t been rediscovered.”
“What about dimensional doorways?”
“That’s a little beyond me. I believe it’s where you can physically move from one place to another, even to a whole different dimension. But I’ve never done it. I have had luck on the astral, though. That’s the connection of souls, the unconscious minds as one, our closest plane. We are wrapped in and surrounded by it. The astral is the invisible stuff that binds this material existence and connects it to all else.”
“So, you can travel through your mind?”
“Oh, yes. Everything is connected, so once you tap into your subconscious, you can go almost anywhere, even to past lives, like what you call Outviews. You’re actually astral traveling.”
“But I could do it within this life, too?”
“Sure, I visit Dusty that way sometimes. It’s the same way your dad told me he’d been murdered. Anyone can do it.”
“How?” Linh asked.
“Like anything else, sweet one. Practice.”
“Can you show us?” Kyle asked.
“I’d love to, but it takes time, so why don’t we do that on another visit? You all come up early, and we’ll spend a day. I’ll get a little course prepared.”
“Can we bring another friend?” Linh asked Rose. “Nate, Amber would love to learn.”
“Bring a whole party if you like,” Rose said. We were all very excited and decided on the following Saturday.
We left around two-thirty, which meant we’d make Brookings by five o’clock. Back on the interstate, I couldn’t shake the strangeness of the Outview from last night. Rose’s talk of vortexes and the astral made me wonder just where we were on the plane. Or what was actually happening. “What if this is all a dream?” I suggested.
“We can’t all be having the same dream,” Linh said.
“How do you know that? Nothing really seems certain anymore.”
“We could all be insane,” Kyle said. “I saw this movie once . . . ”
“Even with all that has happened to me recently, last night seemed extra weird.”
“Last night? What about the Old Man of the Lake? And Aunt Rose seeing your dad? This whole trip’s been weird,” Kyle said, pulling into a gas station to fill up.
Heading into the convenience store, I was stopped by an attractive young woman coming out who dropped her purse. Its contents spilled onto the sidewalk; I stepped on a stray quarter.
“Here you go.” I handed it to her as she pushed a hairbrush into her bag.
“Thanks.” She looked up at me. “Do you ever feel like it’s all a dream?”
“What did you say?” A wave of dizziness hit and my vision blurred, as if someone had just smeared a streak across the whole front of the store. Everything ran in reverse. Her purse emptied again. The coin flew back under my shoe and then rolled backward. All her stuff jumped from the ground back into her purse and she went backward into the store. A jolt, a smear and she came out again as if nothing had happened. She smiled at me and was going to walk on without a word.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Do you know me?”
“Don’t be silly, Nate, of course I do.”
“Where do I know you from? What just happened?” I asked.
“You wouldn’t remember. But don’t worry, you will. I’ll see you soon.”
“Wait,” I said.
“Don’t worry so much,” she repeated. “Once you’re open, everything is visible. Keep looking; you’ll be amazed.”
She walked behind a delivery truck and was gone once it moved. I went in for a soda and a couple of packs of peanut butter cups, but it took a long time for me to make up my mind whether to get them with or without crunchy nuts, jumbo sized, minis, regulars or the white ones. Picking a soda also proved difficult. I walked into a display of sunglasses and bumped into a truck driver. Linh came in to check on me, but by then I was in line. She gave me the “we were worried you might have been chased by ghosts again” look and escorted me back to the car. I decided not to tell them about the woman with the purse and also didn’t mention the leopard or gazelles that made appearances along the way.
It took more than an hour to locate someone in Brookings who could tell us how to find Tea Leaf Beach. We were beginning to think it and the guy we were supposed to meet didn’t exist. The guy at the outdoor shop was surprised. “Not too many people know about Tea Leaf,” he said, and then shared the secret closely guarded among locals. It made sense no one knew about it, the only access was hidden behind a guardrail along the busy coastal highway. After that, a steep path down takes about twenty-five minutes to navigate.
Finding Amber’s beach house was much easier. Up a winding road through a security gate with a four-
digit code, still set to the year her divorced parents married. The wooden house sat on a ridge. You couldn’t see the ocean until you were inside or on the deck, but then the view was sweeping.
I called Amber to let her know we’d found it and how much we all loved the place. But really I wanted her to know that Aunt Rose was going to teach us about astral traveling and more on the following Saturday. “Can you come?”
“I can’t wait!” she squealed.
While eating the last of our Station food and watching the sun go down, we speculated about our mysterious morning meeting, which was quite early because low tide was at 7:19 a.m. and sunrise at 6:43 a.m. In case there wasn’t enough light to see the trail, I put flashlights in our packs.
We looked over the stuff from my dad’s desk again. Linh thought her dad might be able to help with the coded writings, and Kyle said he had some tools at home that could pull the inlays out of the box. We had no good ideas about the carved wooden piece but thought of taking it to an antique dealer. I still had the bluish-black stone from the Old Man. It was beautiful but otherwise didn’t seem important.
Kyle went to sleep first, but I was reluctant. Linh stayed up, and we wrapped together in a blanket on the deck. The ocean was far enough away that the surf couldn’t be heard, but there was enough moonlight to see it churning out to the horizon. Unaware that everything was about to change, we talked at length about all that had happened before falling asleep.
23
Sunday, September 21 (Equinox)
After going up and down the highway several times, Kyle finally spotted the correct section of guardrail. There was barely enough room to pull the car off the road. We’d been expecting to see another vehicle belonging to the man we were meeting, but there was none. The trailhead was nearly impossible to see among the thick ferns, lush undergrowth, and dim light. Our flashlights lit the narrow path through the primeval forest. Large banana slugs left slimy trails, and sticky spider webs grabbed our sleeves. No one spoke except for the occasional, “This is so beautiful.” The forest hushed us. Everything was fantastically green, in so many different shades. The trail dropped more than five hundred feet in about a mile, making for a steep and slippery descent.